You see, what happens is this then:
that an individual who all his life long has played the social game
then says: "Well, now I've done that, I have assumed this role, I have become identified with tinker, tailer, soldier, sailer, whatever it was ...
... but now: 'Who am I?' ... really!
In order to find that out I have to go off by myself. Why?
Because ... you have a role conception, a mask conception of yourself ...
because other people tell you who you are!
We are constantly - in every social interchange, in the most common remarks - telling other people who they are.
Everything leads up to that. The way I act towards you, the way you act towards me tells me who I am and tells you who you are.
For example, you come and sit here listen to me talk.
You are by doing that telling me I am some kind of a teacher.
And you're telling yourselves that you're some kind of students.
And that's only one thing, you see, one little incident.
In business every day, in your house work and everything you do
everybody around you is telling you what you are and who you are by expecting certain behaviour from you
which - if you are a reasonable and socially inclined person - you perform, because that's what's expected of you.
So you are told who you are!
See, it's not much fun to be happy and not know it.
We need a certain resonance. Self-consciousness is an echo in our heads ...
... an echo of what we do, but wouldn't be aware of doing it if there wasn't an echo.
When you see yourself in a mirror, that mirror is a visual echo of your face.
And that's why in a room such as this, it's very comfortable room for me to talk in - because it has resonance.
And so self-consciousness is neurological resonance.
Now you know how troublesome resonance can get if it's not properly worked out.
You can get echoes that just won't stop.
So you go into a great cave somewhere and say: "Hi." And it does: "hi," "hi," "hi," "hi,"
That's very confusing. Now that's the sort of ? that self-consciousness can get in to ... and we call it anxiety.
When I keep keep keep thinking: "Did I do the right thing?"
If I am constantly aware of myself in a kind of anxious, critical way, my resonance becomes too high
and so I get confused and jittery.
But, if you learn that self-consciousness has limits, that self-awareness cannot possibly enable you to be free of making mistakes.
You can learn to be spontaneous in spite of being self-aware ...
... and enjoy the echo!
And so you can have this sensation, you see, of total unity with the cosmos ...
of the - shall I call it expansion to infinity or contraction to infinity - ...
... of your identity
without forgetting
society's game rules with regard to you.
in other words
it doesn't mean that you forget your address, telephone number, social security number
and the name you were given.
You remember all that and you can play that game when necessary
but you know it's a game!
So, there is no way - as a matter of fact - of escaping from playing these games
And the only thing is that when you find out, that you are thoroughly selfish
you inquire: "What is it? What is the self that I love?"
What is this thing that I am so interested in advancing and in protecting?
And you look very closely in to what you feel when you think you feel yourself!
And you know what you find out?
That your Self is everything that you thought was someone else
or something else.
You have no knowledge of yourself, you see! Except in relation to others!
Self and other are as inseparable as back and front!
There is no knowledge of self without the knowledge of other-ness,
there is no knowledge of the voluntary without the knowledge of the involuntary,
of can without can't
so they go together!
And that going together of Self and other is non-duality, that's advaita!
That is the Self with a capital "S."
So, through Self one finds deliverance from self.
And so finally, we come to the last consideration
which is the question
in what way and by what means
can an individual
who is under the impression that he is a separate individual
limited by and enclosed in by his bag of skin
how can such a person effectively realize that he is deep down the universal Self - the Brahman?
This of course
is a curious question!
It proposes a journey to the place where you already are!
Now, it's true, that you may not know that you are there
but you are!
And if you take a journey to the place where you are,
you will visit many other places than the place where you are.
and perhaps
when you find through some long experience
that all the places you go to
are not the places you wanted to find!
It may occur to you that you were already there in the beginning!